The Saturday, March 16 meet drew hundreds of students to New York City. A member of Pleasantville’s varsity indoor track & field team, McDermott placed fifth in a field of 19 middle school milers.

"Despite bad weather and poor training conditions over the past month, Declan ran a personal-best time and set a Pleasantville Middle School record of 4:50.6, just 3.8 seconds back from the winner," representatives said. "His medal-winning performance closes out the indoor track season, during which the Pleasantville team won its league championship in just its second season in existence. The team also had 9 league champions, Section 1 champions in 3 events, and a New York State qualifier."